Monster In My Pocket

No one seems to remember these little plastic toys despite take over of the 90s

Monster In My Pocket was huge in the early 90s and I loved them! And I think I still am. The little monsters gained celebrity status as pocket-sized rubber figurines (painted all one colour) which could be found in

single packs:

packs of 4:

packs of 12:

or 24:

The monsters were found everywhere in the 90s, they were pogs, posters, toys, an NES video game, a short lived tv show (I think only one episode was aired and then the VHS was sold with a monster toy),

they were on the back of cereal boxes (Shreddies and others) and by 1994 they made it into the U.K.

A good friend of mine collected more of them than I did. Him and I would rush into the bedroom to peel open the silver foil package to claim the mysterious monster prize. They came in many solid colours light olive, red, yellow, dark purple, neon green, light red, neon yellow, light purple. Some of the ones we had were:

Great Beast

Werewolf

The Monster

Kali

Medusa

Vampire

Spring-Heeled Jack

Invisible Man

Skeleton

There were 48 in the first series, and seven series in the entire toy figure set. (1990-1994)

As you collected the figurines you were then able to purchase the display mountain!

And if that wasn't enough you could also collect the popular trading cards

There were 48 cards, 24 stickers and a map for the stickers.

The cards had a point system, and I think there was a game attached, maybe the game was about adding the points?.

But my friend and I were more interested in the Nintendo Entertainment System game,a 2-player side-scrolling adventure.

With button "A" you could jump and button "B" was your attack, some sort of fire swoosh thing in the air.

The game has two characters, Vampire or The Monster. The game starts inside of a house and you are forced to battle other pocket-sized monsters, but there are items along the way that you can pick up and throw in your defense, such as keys.

I don't remember if we ever beat the game but I know that we tried over a hundred times. It seemed like each weekend we would run to the local video store (Microplay or VideoFlicks) and rent the NES game for maybe two or four dollars.

My fondness for the game and characters aren't really based in how amazing the toys were or the characters. Sure the game was fun and the toys were based on famous mythological figures, but it's like anything else from that time. I've since tried to play the video game, watch the show, collect the toys and it just doesn't appeal to me as it did then, as I thought it would now. I suppose the nostalgia is less for the items and more for the time. The innocence I ha which I didn't know I had, the lack of responsibilities - all of that replaced now by bills and debt, watering the plants, or feeding myself

The neat thing is Monster in my Pocket grew up too. There's a new line of figures for the next generation of fun and free spirited kids.

These new toys are painted with detail, and sure I resent the changing of anything from my childhood (CGI carebears, CGI Gadget, CGI TMNT)

But hey, at least someone is making from those precious memories.

I got most of my images from: http://www.raumhafen.de/galerie/rubber_guys/mimp/index.html
and the NES images were screen shots from my own playing...I died within minutes.

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I remember these too. I never saw the single packs, every store I went to sold them in either 4 packs or the 24 pack. me and a buddy of mine would play with them a lot and trade doubles. If I remember correctly the NES game also came with a special edition one made for Konami.

Ohhh yeah, Monster in My Pocket is something that i never have forgotten about.It was huge when i was a kid.I was never like a diehard collector of them, i only had maybe a few, but they were everywhere!Remember playing the game and everything.I must say though, that i would go to 7-Eleven and get Slurpees all the time to get the cards though, cuz you always got a pack with a Slurpee, those were awesome.I can still distinctly remember having a Vampire card, haha!.

Actually, I can do you one better. Apparently when Harvey Comics had briefly come out of limbo (after their Ghostbusters/Fatso lawsuit), they had come out with a limited series based on the toy line.

Basically the premise behind Monster in My Pocket was there were two factions of Monsters, and due to some botched up spell made to destroy the 'good' Monsters, it ended up transforming them all into six inch figures. As expected, the evil faction kept trying wreaking havoc on mankind while attempting to return themselves back to normal size, whereas the good ones kept foiling them and also wanted to find a way getting back to normal.

AND as with all cliched things, two kids find the good faction and discover the whole battle. The series didn't last too long though, due to the fact when Harvey passed on, the comic company fell into obscurity.

But Monster in My Pocket was popular because it wasn't just based on the classic monsters we know from film and mythology, but from other cultures as well. Like Baba Yaga I think is a famous monster from Hindu belief, the "Great Beast" I suspect was actually Sasquatch, but due to another toy company copyrighting the name for their monster line, they couldn't call it that or "Bigfoot."

I don't remember these really but nice article. I certainly remember M.U.S.C.L.E.S. and their cheap supermarket coin machine knock-offs. I also remember these Beast characters that 'battled for the fun of it.' -- (funny how cool the non-poseable characters became for a while!)

I loved Monster in my Pockets! I had collected most of the first US series to be released, and then collected most of the second series, which if I remember had multiple colors on one figurine.

Personally I got a kick out of the toys, having always been a big fan of mythology and monsters in general. I don't remember actually doing anything special with them other than just collecting them and displaying them and looking at them, but still I kinda wish I had hung on to my collection, since they cost a ridiculous amount of money on Ebay!

"Him and I would rush into the bedroom to peel open the silver foil package to claim the mysterious monster prize." Maybe itÂ´s just me, but that sounds a bit strange... Anyway, i remember having about ten figures from the "Monster Ninja Warriors" line. Monster in my pocket never were that big in my country, as far as i remember.

I can honestly recall most of their names, too. I remember these vividly as a kind of flexible M.U.S.C.L.E. Man. When you think about it, there were tons of different 1.5 - 2 inch toy lines back in the day: the green(sometimes black) army guys, Monster-in-my-pocket, M.U.S.C.L.E. Men, Army Ants, Battle Beasts, the list goes on.
Great article.

the monsters in my pocket game on nes was the only memoribilia i had. i do remember the snack prizes though... as for the cgi stuff at the end, i don't remember seeing one of inspector gadget. great article! and..... still waiting for mine....

monsters in my pocket, I never caught on with that fad, but I like it already
however with new turtles movie. It was not as but as care bears or inspector gadget. It wasn't what I was hoping but it wasn't bad either